BUSINESS WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY The story of Teddy Exports is unusual in several ways.

For one, it is headed by a woman who did not inherit a business legacy but built it from scratch with vision and passion. Most important, Teddy Exports shows us that it is possible to use business not only to make profits, but also to make sense, to change the lives of of people by investing part of the profits for community development. That the modern world is much more complicated than the one fi fty years ago is not true. Today we only have the technical means to grasp its complexity. Nonetheless it did not become easier to actually do good. When you donate money to a charity organisation, you choose one problem over the other. You also can't see an immediate improvement that your donation might have caused, or if it was actually used for a humanitarian cause. Some people have the courage to actually go to a third world country and try to make a difference all by themselves.

Amanda Murphy witnessed the hypocrisy of some charity organisations fi rst hand when she came to India in 1989. When asked what convinced her more to stay in India the beauty or the poverty she said," "The People, I fell in love with the people."

When Teddy Exports, named after her first child, was founded in 1990, it was a fi ve-employee company producing timber products out of a mud hut in Tirumangalam, a small village 20 kms. South of Madurai. By 1991, the company had already made sufficient profi t to begin the Teddy Trust, a humanitarian nonprofit organisation, and by 1993, had moved to their current spacious campus.

From the beginning, the mission of Teddy Exports was not just profit, but also to provide a socially responsible entrepreneurial solution to local problems. This unusually progressive attitude has resulted in high revenues for the whole of the company's existence.

Now a major exporter, Teddy Exports employs over five hundred people and does business worth around several crores each year. Last year Teddy Exports had an annual turnover of Rs. 12 crore and 64 lakhs. The socially conscious aspect of the company is what draws in many of its business partners from outside India. Teddy Exports' first client was The Body Shop, a Western chain store which carries various high-end bath and body products in fi fty-fi ve countries throughout the world. The Body Shop is still the company's biggest client, though they now also provide screen-printed cloth bags, textiles, wooden toys and furniture to about nine other companies.

Though the Body Shop's original order was only for rolling wooden massagers, demand for Teddy Exports' goods has grown steadily since its inception. Pleased with the results of the massagers, the Body Shop began requesting more and more products, requiring Teddy Exports to outsource local tailors and printers. However, it soon became clear that it would be more cost effective to vertically integrate and hire such tradesmen for use within the company. Practical business moves with great respect to morality and humanity is what has made Teddy Exports successful. Chief products manager Baskar, has been employed at Teddy Exports since the beginning and confi dently says that their "success is due to the quality and dedication of the employees." Teddy Exports' leadership has managed to successfully combine social awareness with a self-sustainable business; a rare tale in today's money-hungry world. Working conditions at Teddy Exports are tops in the region. Employees receive free medical care, free primary school for their children, on-site child care, high quality and safe working conditions, pension plans, subsidised lunch and tea at the company canteen, three-month maternity leave, annual excursions and, most importantly, fair wages. Minimum wage at Teddy Exports is Rs. 3,000 per month. Employee satisfaction is extremely high. "Working here, I can support myself; no one else has to take care of me," said seamstress Naga Rathinam, who has been with the company for eight years. "I like this job because it provides me with continuous living," says one quality control worker. "I have worked here for the last three years. My standard of living remains the same as long as I am here." In the early years of Teddy Exports Amanda was hoping that the extra money her employees would get, would be invested in the community but most of it was spent on luxuries such as TVs and motorbikes. That's why Amanda established Teddy Trust. The trust is highly active and supports various humanitarian causes, such as raising AIDS awareness, promoting women's right or improve the integration of children with special needs with non disabled. Through the profits of Teddy Exports, the Teddy Trust fund was able to build the Teddy Primary and High School and the Teddy Community Health Centre on the company's campus. Both facilities help the ones who are easily forgotten or overlooked in India. The schools educate now about 600 students. The primary school teaches children with disabilities the skills they need to know to be integrated into high school. Both schools have a library, video and digital capabilities. In addition to that they also offer evening classes for children who have to work during the daytime. Visiting the schools, you can see that they offer a colorful and productive environment. The children seem to enjoy going to school. In the primary school you can see how special needs children learn basic skills such as gaining proper motor skills etc. In the high school they sit alongside the other children in class and fit in.

As a Westerner visiting an Indian school, our expectations were by far surpassed. One of our reporters even remarked, that his primary school didn't offer this much educational material for biology classes. We were also quite amazed by the fact that there is a small auditorium for school gatherings and a pet zoo. Even more remarkable is the integration of special needs children into school and work life. Starting in 1993 Amanda Murphy tried to look up local children with mental or physical disabilities to help them get a proper education. When she saw how they were treated she was so shocked that she intensified her search for them. Most of the special needs children who study at the Teddy Trust Schools nowadays got there through word of mouth. Many come from frustrated parents, who think they are being punished for their former lives. Before Teddy Exports became locally popular though, Amanda and her employees actually went searching for children. A lot of them were found living under horrible circumstances, because of that she is very concerned about the general perception of special needs children in Indian society. She insists that mentally or physically disabled people do have the right to live a normal and productive life. Amanda is also an avid AIDS awareness activist. The Teddy Community Health Care Centre offers low cost or free health care to women, children, and truck drivers. For most of them it's the only chance to get a treatment for their diseases. The Teddy Trust fund also built two truckers booth for truck drivers the main group of people who spread HIV and AIDS in the country. Truck drivers who go to the trucker's booth and sex workers who go to the Teddy Trust offi ce in Madurai are provided with education about AIDS and free condoms. In addition to its humanitarian efforts, Teddy Exports is also an environmentally conscious organisation. Its timber products are all made from a sustainable and controlled local resource, mostly Acacia Nilotica wood, which is also used for firewood by the locals. Though constantly replenishing the wood source raises the cost of operations, both the factory manager and the head products manager agree that the cost is worth it. Although it may seem as though the company is more concerned with philanthropy than sound business practices, profits have not suffered. Teddy Exports maintains a strong commitment to quality products and impeccable customer service as their business model maintains that fairly treated workers and a valued community is assets which feed directly back into the business. Prices are internationally competitive and the array of products grows every year. Today, their most popular product is screen-printed tote bags; upwards of ten thousand are produced in a single day. Teddy Exports' high standards have not gone unnoticed by the international community. In 1999, the business won the World Aware small business award just one year after founder Amanda Murphy was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE), a royal honor, though Amanda said that she was more amused then honored to actually meet the queen. Receiving awards like these were a side effect of her struggle, never the goal. Fair Trade plays an important role in the philosophy of Teddy Exports. Amanda herself describes her belief as"Trade, not aid!" Rather than making farmers dependent on charity and subsidies,

Fair Trade is about paying them a reasonable and naturally, fair price for their work, so they are able to live a secure life and improve their community's living standard. Looking at the success of Teddy Exports and the numerous humanitarian efforts the Teddy Trust fund has supported, Amanda could be quite satisfied with what she's done with her life. But instead of sitting back and enjoying the harvest of her life, she is still anxious about improving the situation of the Indian people. The ongoing repression of women, the treatment of children with disabilities, and many other issues, leave Amanda restless. It's hard to imagine that her energy will ever cease. Amanda Murphy proves that one person can make a difference. All it takes is passion and commitment.

Source: Madurai Messenger.org By Carrie Hadler and Malte Meissne